Friday, November 08, 2013

Eye On The Prize: The Temple Mount

Arab protesters react during clashes with police on the Temple Mount.(Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters)

"Let them threaten us with a third intifada – we cannot give up our rights to Muslim intolerance."
Amid the backdrop of a pronounced spike in Jews being detained at the Temple Mount for illegal prayer – coupled with a rancorous Monday Knesset meeting regarding Jewish prayer rights there – Judaism’s holiest site remains the epicenter of profound discord between Jews and Muslims.

According to police, in the last two weeks there were at least 10 detentions of Jews openly defying prayer restrictions at the contested area – by bowing, moving their lips to pray, and in one instance, defiantly lying on the ground – far exceeding detentions during previous weeks.

Although the Supreme Court has upheld Jewish prayer rights there, the court severely restricts visitation hours for Jews and allows police to prevent any form of Jewish worship there if they believe such activities will incite a “disturbance to the public order.” (Read: "fear of the Arabs getting out of control")(cont.)

A Knesset debate on the implementation of equal Jewish prayer rights at Jerusalem's Temple Mount degenerated into a shouting match Monday, as Arab Knesset Members used threatening words and aggressive body language to disrupt the meeting.

Chairwoman of the Committee of Interior, MK Miri Regev(Likud), appeared largely helpless in the face of an angry onslaught by radical Arab MKs, who were eventually removed by orderlies after launching a string of angry invective towards Regev and another female MK.

"I am proud to be Arafat's friend."

MK Ahmed Tibi

According to a proposed law, tabled by MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan(Bayit Yehudi/Jewish Home), daily prayer hours would be set for Jewish groups visiting the Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest site.

Despite its supreme significance to Jews throughout the world, Muslim pressure has resulted in a raft of discriminatory measures against Jewish visitors by Israeli Police, including a total ban on Jewish religious activity there. Violators of the ban are arrested immediately, and often slapped with a ban from ascending the Mount altogether.

The laws, if passed, would be a monumental upholding of Israel's official stance of religious freedom. While Israel officially liberated the Temple Mount from Arab occupation during the 1967 Six Day War, the government controversially handed back control of the Mount to the Islamic Waqf foundation, which has been accused of implementing a campaign of Islamization, including the systematic destruction of Jewish artifacts, aimed at erasing all traces of Jewish history at the site.

During the stormy debate over the law, Regev explained the rationale behind it, saying that "We cannot have a situation in which a state cannot realize its sovereignty and people can't pray at sites holy to them."

Regev further stressed that "we don't want to go into Al Aqsa [mosque] or prevent you (Muslims) from praying there, but want to enable Jews to pray on the compound as well."

But MK Muhammad Barakeh(Hadash)warned that Arab MKs would physically prevent the implementation of equal prayer rights at the Temple Mount, shouting that "Whoever comes to defile the Al Aqsa Mosque will find us there!"

That remark prompted MK Regev to retort: "Is that a threat?”MK Ahmed Tibi joined the fray, warning that:"The Second Intifada began because of Al Aqsa, and because of you it will erupt because of Al Aqsa... you are a pyromaniac."

"You say that as a friend of Yasser Arafat," said MK Orit Struk(Bayit Yehudi).

"I am proud to be Arafat's friend... his shoe is worth ten like you...", replied Tibi, who later called out at a female MK who was off-camera, possibly MK Struk, "You are a dangerous woman, a pyromaniac. You endanger your children, not just ours... You are a lowly settler.. on the land of others..."

In September, Tibi sparked controversy by declaring that the Temple Mount “is a place of prayer for Muslims alone," and accusing Jewish worshippers of "contaminating" it by visiting it.

MK Moshe Feiglin urged Regev to eject the unruly MKs for breaking Knesset protocol, after calling her a "pyromaniac" and accusing her of "chutzpah."

Obviously pleased with the way he had denigrated the Knesset, MK Tibi finally left the room as he said in Arabic: "Yalla, out, out, you... animals." It is not clear whom he was addressing.

The scene was typical of the way extremist Arab MKs have been behaving in the Knesset since the mid-1990s, when radical Arab leaders like Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal) and Azmi Bishara (Balad) entered the Jewish state's parliament. A decision by the Election Committee to disqualify the radical lists in 1997 was overturned by the High Court.

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
Is the Israeli government THAT afraid of the "international community's" reaction to its claim on the Holiest site of the Jewish People?

On the surface, this appears to be the case. Just barely under that surface, terrified MK's desperately want to prevent another Intifada. Even the Left fears this, and fears that this considerably weaken its case for defending the Arabs, no matter how much they cry "battered wives syndrome."

But, what is going on at a deeper level is twofold. First, taking control of the Temple Mount is the key to full control over Israel. Everyone knows it. But, of course, the Erev Rav does not want that. Otherwise, they will have the greatest obstacle to its nefarious plans to destroy Israel, both physically and spiritually, from within. In the above video, the total contempt of the Arab MK's for Israel and the Jewish People, appears to be an integral part of their plan. Thus it was no surprise that the Israeli Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling to allow such antitheses to Jewish sovereignty of the Land to be apart of its current governing body.

If the police are finally forced to intervene in order to enforce court orders and Knesseth legislation, the Erev Rav may have no choice but to start playing even dirtier.

Things are heating up around prayer on the Temple Mount. We shall see if any other MK's besides Feiglin, Regev, Ben Dahan, and Struk step up to the plate.

Second, the Erev Rav is terrified of the day that building on the Third Beth HaMiqdash (Temple). For truly then, they will know that their days are numbered.